Rangers recall Tanner Glass

The Rangers have recalled forward Tanner Glass from the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. Glass was waived in October, as he did not have a spot on the roster when everyone was healthy. With Derek Stepan on the shelf, the Rangers needed a spare forward. Although Jayson Megna was called up over the weekend just in case a forward couldn’t play, clearly Alain Vigneault prefers to have someone like Glass around just in case.

It is unclear how long Glass will be with the team, but it’s logical to assume he will be here through the Western Canada road trip. Glass put up a line of 2-3-5 in 17 games with the Pack.

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53 comments

they needed to this now we will have grit in the lineup with glass and mcelrath to protect brass and Zuccarello from guys like clutterbuck and martin let’s beat the isles tonight will see you tomorrow after work.

And just like that, the return of Glass to make us whole again. TGFTG – Thank G-d for Tanner Glass. We were all looking for solutions, and the fix was right under our nose. Silly bloggers, tricks are for kids! Glass is once again wearing a Ranger sweater, ISIS is gone, the world is finally in a better place.
TGFTG!

Eddie, he was all hype. The night Fotiu took on the whole Flyer team ( * 1978 Pre season bench clearing brawl) . Mel Bridgman made a bee line for Beaton ( who you could tell wanted no part of him) and proceeded to pound him relentlessly. I can not believe the Rangers thought he could be a legit enforcement to take Fotiu”s place. He could not carry Nicks water bottle.

Nick Fotiu , no Ranger wore the NY Jersey with more pride. Nicky all by himself, changed the Ranger team from one that got abused on a regular basis to one that many teams could no longer intimidate because of his presence. One of my most angered moments was when Shero did not dress him for any of the Cup Finals games vs Canadians in 1979?? , as I watched a young Rod Langway , totally abuse an past his prime Phil Esposito all series long, with never having to answer to Nicky!!

I remember debating this before. I LOVED Nicky vs teams like the Flyers. But if you honestly believe that the Rangers would have somehow beaten that dynastic Canadiens team by inserting Nick Fotiu into the lineup, I don’t even know what to say. That was probably the most skilled hockey team top to bottom I’ve ever seen. The “Fog” did the right thing there not playing Nicky. There would have been no one for him to fight and he would have been thoroughly exposed out there.

Marty Mcsorley had a long and decent career ( yes the Brashear, incident was ugly) but the man was a stay at home defenseman , who could throw some mean body checks, and a true enforcer in every sense of the word, instrumental in the Kings 93 cup run. Gretzky ‘s personal body guard in LA and Edmonton before that. I for one would not mind seeing Mcllrath have a career similar to Mcsorley, very similar in size.

Agree about Beaton. I think they had to let Fotiu go because of the WHA expansion draft, if my memory serves. Clearly, they lost a key heart and soul guy at the time.

As for McSorley, no doubt he played a key role on those great Edmonton teams. But I doubt seriously a guy like that could play in today’s league.

Interesting side bar on all of this. Was watching NHL Live yesterday, and Dave Maloney was talking about McIlrath’s career arc. He mentioned he had talked with scouts before McIlrath had come up to the big club, and they were saying that in a way, they think McIlrath is the last of a “dying breed” of players. The thinking in the hockey world has even changed since the Rangers drafted him in 2010. The emphasis now is on doubling down on speed and skill. And Maloney acknowledged what we’ve heard discussed before, that the Rangers made an “out of the box” pick that year specifically to complement what they thought they had in Michael Del Zotto, who they thought was going to be a big star.

But, Maloney then said, now that he’s up with the team, it’s clear so far at least to him that McIlrath is more than just an old fashioned tough guy. He thinks the kid can play, and play effectively. Coming from a guy who’s was very much against the Barry Beck trade back in the day (I was there), and a guy who’s never been a big proponent of fighting in the game, hearing that from Maloney certainly gets my attention.

Eddie, excellent information, I also here Mcllrath is well liked by the majority of the team, a team 1st guy. I think Ulf Samuleson see’s some of himself in Mcllrath ( Although Ulf would never take off the shield, let alone drop the gloves ) I would love to get into the nuts a bolts on your thoughts on the Barry Beck trade, that is a topic that would have a life of its own, Intrigued that you were covering the team back then!!

I think I told your before, but happy to share again. I was covering the team at the time. The Rangers felt they had to get bigger. Beck was a really good player. They had just come off their amazing run in 1979. The team was very, very close knit. That deal just knocked them all for a loop….(some kidded the trade was the hardest hit Beck threw all year!). They traded away three outstanding offensive talents in Lucien DeBlois, Mike McEwen (one of the best offensive defensemen of his day) and Pat Hickey. Hickey they were right to part with. He had his career year in ’78-’79. The others were very young and just hitting their prime. Way, way, way too much to give up.

Beck was a very likable guy, and eventually did become a team leader. But every player I spoke with at the time were just stunned by what happened with that trade, and in the off season, blamed the trade for ruining the team chemistry. The team got larger, tougher, and worse. And stayed that way until they recovered for one season in ’84.

I’d take Beck on my team any day, just not at such a cost.

Perhaps that’s why I have a very cautious approach when it comes to big guys like McIlrath. I’ve seen this tale unfold many,many times, and usually, it hasn’t worked out very well.

But, he’s been good so far, we gave up nothing (except Tarasenko I guess) to get him, so let’s roll with him now and see where it takes us!

Eddie, playing devils advocate here. In 1979 if The Bruins beat the Canadians in game 7 ( too many men on the ice sealed their faith) . Then its a NY vs Boston 1979 cup finale!, Espo & Vadnais vs Ratelle & Park, Who Wins The cup?? Could you see Shero playing Nicky AGAINST THE BIG BAD BRUINS??

WOW !!!, never knew the trade was received with such negativity , by his own teammates?? . I do remember Beck’s reputation grew leaps and bounds when the Russian national team was playing against the best of the NHL and Beck seemed to go on a wrecking ball rampage with body checks that sent many Russians into oblivion! I will admit he never lived up to his reputation, and I do remember him telling a reporter at the time ( Larry Sloman ?? who wrote the book thin ice) that he was not giving it his all each game because he was saving himself for the playoffs, which his Ranger teams never got to the finals. I think he got too caught up in the NY life style and became a less aggressive type of player. Of course he was never the same after Pat Flatley ruined his shoulder with that hit from behind.

Just to clarify, it was the guys they gave up that they were negative about, not Beck himself. They liked him, respected him a lot, and of course he eventually became captain. But I was in that lockerrom a lot, and those guys LOVED each other. After all they felt they had accomplished in ’79’ that trade just crushed their spirit and set them back, at least temporarily.

At last! Our savior has returned! Let’s not forget the Rangers had their finest regular season ever with Tanner Glass anchoring (and I do mean literally ANCHORING) the fourth line. So we should be back to dominating soon enough! Any chance we could lure MSL out of retirement while we are at it?

And with Glass in there, along with McIlrath, look out NHL….don’t be messing with us no more!

As I said the other day, the best part of this move will be to watch half this blog lose their collective minds over a guy who plays ten minutes a game, if he plays at all!

Its more an indictment of the team, than anything else, that Glass is the type of player they called up to fill in. I hate the idea of having one guy on a team to fight your battles for you, but this team is what it is.

Are we really that much different than the other Final Four teams from last year in that regard? Who are the players on Tampa let’s say that makes them tougher and meaner than us? I truly wonder if that’s more our own perception as compared to actual reality.

And besides, we don’t just have Glass, we have McIlrath. So that’s two for us right? 🙂

I truly think so many fans of their team have a truly pessimistic perception of their team. I happen to live outside of NY in a location centered between 3 division rivals so I interact with plenty of fans of our rivals. A few years ago during one of the Rangers-Capitals series that went 7 games I happen to be in a bar during game 7 that had a very large amount of Capitals fans. It was a tough fought series and in true blogger fashion, everywhere I looked on the Internet, rangers fans were ready to tie the noose to the rafters because they were “going 7 games in another playoff series”. The Rangers scored a goal in the first period to go up 1-0 and it was like a funeral in the bar I was in. I was so surprised by the utter disgust the capitals fans had towards their team despite playing even hockey through the first 6 games of the series. The game was hardly over yet one goal let them unleash so many negative comments like “this team suck! Of course they let up the first goal!” And it reminded me of exactly what I read all over the Internet and every newspaper article by ranger fans, reporters, and bloggers. Both teams went in to that game 7 yet everywhere fans and reporters of both teams couldn’t help but point out all the horrible mistakes their team were making and how many missed opportunities led them to being in that situation. No one ever wants to give the opponent credit for why they are in that situation. And no one watches every other team play every single night. Every team has their faults and if you watch them play every single night for 6 months you will notice what they are doing wrong. Yet I think people need to realize that every other team in the league experiences the same thing throughout an 82 game season.

I would love to bring some of my friends who are fans of other teams on a tour of the Internet and newspaper articles about this team and let them start their “let me call you a wahhhhhmbulance” insults because of all of the recent success we have been able to experience the last 5 years.

I think maybe horse shoes might be your game instead of hockey. Close doesn’t count, no matter how much emphasis you want to put on Presidents trophies or Divison Championships. If they’re giving away a trophy at the end of the season, to the best—-after sticking with the team through ups and downs—I want that trophy. Doesn’t make me an ingrate or a bad fan if I fail to recognize how close they got, or how well they played. It just makes me a passionate supporter, who wants nothing but the best for my team. Like a proud parent—only the best is good enough. Everything else is just a footnote.

I disagree. All you can ask out of management is to create a team that has the capability to win. What GM in any sport can GUARANTEE a chanpionship? Look at what happens in the NHL. How often do low seeded teams go on an improbable run and knock off the favorites, if not outright win it all. It happens more in hockey than any other sport.

The line between playoff success and failure is razor thin. So you build your team, hope that you aren’t decimated by injuries as the Rangers were last year, and go at it. If you fall short, you evaluate what was missing and try to fortify yourself assuming such a player exists and you have the cap space to do so.

And hopefully, you’ve built a team that has a wide window that will allow you to have several kicks at the can.

I’ll dumb this down and assume you didn’t read the part where I said I wasn’t calling you out.

If we all watched Montreal play every game this year and read every article posted by anyone, we would find areas of their game that need improvement just like we do for the Rangers. It’s all a matter of perspective.

I’m not settling for not winning a cup and didn’t mean anything like that. I was simply responding to eddies comment that maybe it’s our perception of our own team.

A calling up of a Glass or having a McIlrath in the lineup is only a band aid. When I think about being tough, I’m not talking about just fighting and goonery Somehow, that distinction is never made when a lack of toughness is suggested. This team needs to be harder to play against—actually playing the game—-not just winning fights. They need more Adam Graves, Sutter brothers type players. Guys that can play with talent and with grit. The team seems to be too overloaded with guys that shy away from the physical part of the game. IMO, a team that is so one-sided in how they want to play, in the end, cannot be successful. Give me the Islander teams of the 80’s; that could play anyway you want. That’s a hard thing to build, and a hard thing to establish, I know—especially to get the kind of talent and success of those old Islander teams in a Cap-World. But that is what they should aspire to. Calling up a guy with limited ability, and putting a rookie in the lineup just because he can fight—to fill a role that the regulars do not seem willing to do—-again is just a band aid.

Those guys are few and far between Joe. And the ones that do exist flame out just as they are old enough to sign a big contract (26-28 years old).

And does this team really shy away from contact? I can’t remember ever seeing a Ranger not go into the corner to get a puck. The only thing this Ranger team doesn’t do is screw around after whistles. And if you really think about it, the best teams in the league, Chicago, TB, Montreal, LA, all play the same way.

Joe719, we are on the same page! That is why I was pushing for the Rangers to acquire Milan Lucic from Boston when his name surfaced as trade able ! I thought with Gortons former ties to the Bruins that it might have had a chance to happen??, I guess Cap Issues made it impossible??

First of all, I don’t believe McIlrath or Glass are in the lineup because they need a toughness “band aid”. Both are in largely due to injuries, so there’s a need right now.

I agree with Chris. I really think there is a tendency for Rangers fans to focus, maybe in a somewhat distorted way, on our supposed lack of physicality. I’m not sure if it’s just ingrained in our collective psyches that we are a “soft” or “small” team going all the way back to Schultz vs Rolfe, but many Rangers fans feel as you do. I just don’t see it. I’m not saying we are the most physical team in the league. But I don’t at all see us as pushovers either.

Who are these teams that are so much tougher than us? I keep hearing Washington, but we beat them in the playoffs every year it seems. Was TB “tougher” than us, or did they, at the end, beat us at our own game largely because we were significantly diminished by injuries?

If the Rangers were a soft team, or a team not designed to compete well in the playoffs, wouldn’t they regularly be bounced out in the first and second round every year? Maybe the Blues and Sharks are soft teams, since that seems to happen with them every year.

Isn’t Winipeg considered one of the most physically imposing teams in the league that was supposed to be the chic pick to win last year? Didn’t they get bounced out by the less physical but highly skilled Ducks?

Since the lockout year, the Rangers have made the playoffs 9 out of 10 seasons. I think only Detroit has done better by the way, which shows how hard it is to do.

But we all agree, playoffs are what matter. So have the Rangers under or overachieved expectations in these seasons? Let’s look.

2006–3rd place Rangers played the 1st place Devils. Jagr got hurt in Game 1 I think. We’re done. We get bounced by the slightly better team in the regular season. Expectations were met, given the long playoff drought and the Jagr injury.

2007–we upset the first place Thrashers (admittedly, not a great team but still more points than us), then lose in a hard fought series to the Sabres, the President’s Trophy winner. Slightly overachieved expectations.

2008–beat the Devils (thanks in part to Avery screening Fatso the Goalie), who were slightly better than us in the regular season, then lost to a clearly better Pens team that went to the SCF. Slightly overachieved expectations.

2009–lost to a vastly superior Washington team in round one. Expectations met.

2011-again, lost to a vastly superior Caps team. Expectations met.

2012–we were the best team in the East. we beat Ottawa and Washington, but barely. Then lost to the Devils. Underachieved badly in my view. Weren’t Torts teams supposed to play rough and tough hockey? What happened? We lacked skill and speed, and the constant strain of playing an endless stretch of one goal games and having to block shots constantly finally wore the team down once they met the Devils. I think it was then that Sather realized we needed more skill untilmately to win.

2013–beat Washington but lost to Boston. Slightly overachieved. Torts fired because his tough team wasn’t tough enough or skilled enough.

2014–best overachievement season since 1997! Based on standings, only should have gotten past Philly. We all know what happened. Great great post season of overachievement by a team that EXCELLED when the games mattered the most. We got beat in the end by a better team that had won the Cup just two seasons earlier. No shame in that.

2015–fell short largely due to the fact that we were decimated with injury.

So, in sum, of the last nine playoff seasons, the Rangers, a team that supposedly is built more for the regular season than the post season, overachieved expectations five times, met expectations twice and fell short of expectations twice. To me, in this run, the only season where I walked away disappointed relative to expectations was 2012.

So I don’t understand the narrative that says we’re not good enough year in and year out to do well in the playoffs, when in fact the opposite seems to be true.

If you have an ugly face you should wear a outrageous hat on your head to distract people from your ugly face.
Maybe the outrageousness of the Glass playing may distract from the ugliness of G playing, we could possibly win.
This is my theory on why we won so many games last year with Glass in the lineup.
Teams would know that our weak link was Glass and only have 10 minutes per game to do something to us but couldn’t get the right personnel to do something because when you only have 11 seconds left in the penalty kill Glass comes on to mock the other team with his untalented abilities while the Rangers playing on Glasses line has to play super defensively and have no offensive capabilities.
Its a mind game.
We lost to the lightning last year because when you don’t fall for the disguise all you have to do is shut down the top 2 lines.

Your post was hilarious and I was going to give you a thumbs up until the final line. Obviously, anyone objectively looking at the Rangers knows that we lost to TB primarily because we were missing one of our MVPs (Zuc) and the entire defense other than Boyle should have been in a M*A*S*H unit instead of on the ice.

The irony of course is that everyone who DID watch the series objectively would probably acknowledge that Glass had his best moments of the season (such as they were, obviously) vs TB. So sorry, WRONG!

But I understand your savior from last year…the man who should have played in Game 7 and really the whole playoffs instead of Glass, James Sheppard, is playing great right now for the Flyers…..that would be the Kloten Flyers of the Swiss A League! Maybe Gorton should give him a call?

Did anyone see the life size dummies on the ice yesterday. I heard Kreider pretended to fight one and Raanta told a reporter that he heard one of them speak more words than Fast has all season. Funny stuff. Smart way to keep the team loose.

The dummies got my warped mind thinking. What if such technology existed back in ’92 when Tie Domi was out there? I’ll bet one of the players would have skated near Domi and said, “hey, look at the dummy!”, just to get under his skin a little. And as we recall when Ulfie did that to him a few years later, all hell might have broken loose. 🙂

Not one of the all time great deals, true. But Eddie O was one of the many players that kept the team loose and focused in ’94 while dealing with Keenan’s occasional bouts of madness that season. Who’s to say we’d have win the Cup if Domi and King were still in the team?

I have a rule that any trade that was made that brought a player who now has his name on the Cup can’t really be considered a bad one. How about trading Amonte and Weight? Those guys were stars for years to come, but those deals that brought Noonan, Matteau and Tikkanen helped to win the Cup.

Yeah, I hear you. Statically speaking, Gartner was the better player. There was a narrative that suggested he was a soft player in post season, but if you look back at his playoff history, that’s not really true. Gartner put up big numbers in the playoffs for the Rangers in 1990 and 1992.

Ultimately, in my view at least, Messier was calling the shots on a lot of these deals. I think Mess really valued what Anderson brought to the table. They obviously had a great chemistry together in Edmonton. I really recoiled when that deal was announced, but in the end, what they did worked so it’s hard to question it in hindsight.

I did feel really bad for Gartner though, because that trade cost him his one and only legit chance to win the Cup. Imagine how devastating it must have been for him.